NUPW gives thumbs up to sexual harassment legislation

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Barbados Today:-Barbados’ largest public sector union has welcomed Government’s tabling in the Senate Wednesday of the Employment Sexual Harassment (Prevention) Bill, 2017.

Under the Bill, which was introduced in the Upper House by the Minister of Labour Dr Esther Byer-Suckoo, the “use of sexually suggestive words, comments, jokes, gestures or actions that annoy, alarm or abuse a person” may be considered sexual harassment, so too “the initiation of uninvited physical contact with a person; the initiation of unwelcome sexual advances or the requests of sexual favours from a person; asking a person intrusive questions that are of a sexual nature that pertain to that person’s private life; transmitting sexually offensive writing or material of any kind; making sexually offensive telephone calls to a person; or any other sexually suggestive conduct of an offensive nature”.

The move by Government was immediately welcomed by independent Senator and former General Secretary of the Barbados Workers’ Union Sir Roy Trotman, who suggested it was long overdue.

In a separate statement today, the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) through its gender affairs committee, hailed the development as “a massive breakthrough” in the fight against sexual harrassment in the workplace